The iconic Travilla dress that defined Monroe’s sex symbol status has been sold at auction for more than double its estimate.

The legendary dress worn by the star in the 1955 film, The Seven Year Itch was originally expected to fetch between $1 and 2 million.

However, it ended up exceeding expectations as a one lucky bidder managed to take home the dress for staggering $4.6 million (£2.8 million). The garment was featured in one of the most famous film moments of all time – Monroe clutching the dress as a gust of wind from the subway causes it to billow up and expose her legs.

This was one of Marilyn Monroe’s crowning moments as the sex symbol she is known as today.

It was just part of a collection held by actress Debbie Reynolds, which featured several pieces of Hollywood history.

The whole sale, which included a lot of Monroe memorabilia, was valued at $22.8 million altogether. The collection was sold at Profiles in History auction house in Calabasas California.

It was made up of items that Reynolds had collected over the years as Hollywood studios sold or emptied their old warehouses. The dress, which was ivory and has now turned cream with age, was the highest value feature of the auction, which consists of around 700 pieces.

Other high sellers of the collections included Marilyn’s red sequin dress from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, which sold for $1.2 million.

Amongst other Monroe memorabilia, there were also many more legendary items from Hollywood history. Judy Garland’s blue cotton dress, which was worn for the first 2 weeks of filming as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, fetched $910,000 – more than ten times the estimate.

Elizabeth Taylor’s riding outfit from National Velvet also sold for $60,000, and Charlie Chaplin’s bowler hat from Little Tramp went for $110,000.

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